Unfinished

Author : JWH

Gobbin hated this place. It stank of death and soldered metal. But then again, so did everywhere else in the belt these days.

Resulta, as the locals now called it, was originally settled as part of the water-ice mining boom in Orkon Crater, the only remaining traces of which were the scores of gaping rig-pits where iron fires now burned. Gobbin’s family once owned a drill lot here, but that was generations ago, long before the Burst.

“Help you, sir?”

Gobbin was still eyeing the smoke when he heard the old rock-breaker’s voice. He was brittle and bent, as though he hadn’t set foot off the asteroid in centuries.

“I’m looking for Dekar,” Gobbin said. “Or someone who knows where he is.”

“Never heard of him,” the old man wheezed. “But further down you may have more luck. That’s where the unseemlies tend to congregate. Figure it’s one of them you’re after.”

Gobbin placed a water pill in the man’s hand and walked toward the descendor. He could feel the searing heat through his suit, but inside he was calm. He was closer than ever to finding him. And this time, not even the Burst could save that son-of-a-bitch.